Ephesians 1:1-14, In Christ

Verse 3 of the first chapter of Ephesians talks about us being blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  I found this interesting, these are not just blessings that we are given, we are given them in Christ.  Through verse 14 Paul talks about a handful of things that are ours in Christ.  So I decided to go through the verses and take notes on these things:

In Christ (Ephesians 1:1-14)

1. We have been given every spiritual blessing in heaven.
2. He chose us before the world was made
3. God made us His own children
4. God freely gave His grace to us
5. We are set free from sin by His blood, we are given grace
6. God let us know His secret purpose for us (see also 1 Corinthians 2:7)
7. God joined all things in heaven and earth together
8. We were chosen to be His people
9. God put His seal, His special mark on us (Holy Spirit)

Ephesians 1 - Blessings & Prayers

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms, with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ~ Ephesians 1:3

As I read the first chapter in Ephesians, verse 3 stands out to me.  We are blessed in the heavenly realm with spiritual blessings.  I began to dig further - what are these blessings?  As I continued to read I jotted these down:

BLESSINGS:

• He chose us to be holy & blameless in His sight.
• He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ
• He freely gives us His glorious grace (because He loves us!)
• We have redemption through His blood
• We have forgiveness of our sins
• He lavishes us with all wisdom and understanding
• He marked us in Him with a seal, the Holy Spirit.  This is our deposit, our guarantee of our inheritance!

In addition, Paul writes about prayers that he has for the Church of Ephesus.  Prayers that I truly believe the Lord has for us, even now in this day and age.

PRAYERS FOR US:

• Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding: This is God's desire, that we have revelation of Him so we may know Him better.
• Eyes of our hearts enlightended:  As we receive more wisdom and revelation of God and who He is, our hearts will begin to understand the hope that He has called us to.
• Riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints
• Incomparably great power for us who believe
• Power:  Incomparably great power - I love this.  He has a mighty power that He wants to give each of us access to through Him.  This is the exact same power that -
• raised Christ from the dead
• seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly realms - far above all rule, all authority, all power and dominion, far above every and any title ever given or which will ever be given!  It is the power that puts all things under Christ's feet and makes Christ head over everything for the Church/His Body.

As I read over this chapter, looked over my notes and prayed, a few things came to mind for me.

• God has spiritual blessings for each of us, but we must draw them out by pursuing God through prayer.
• Everyone needs prayer, even the best of Christians.  When we hear of the needs of other Christians, we should pray for them, lift them up to the Lord in prayer.  Paul continually prayed for other Christians and he continually asked for the prayers of others.  None of us is above the need for prayer and none of us is above the requirement to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Paul prayed for other Believers while he was in prison and being abused.  None of us are ever in such need ourselves to where we should think only of ourselves and not take the time to pray for others.
• We can only get to know the Lord more through His mighty power.  Jesus is the One who supplies us with everything we need, so the more we pursue Him, the more spiritual blessings we receive.
• No matter who powerful those around us or the circumstances around us may seem, we need to remember that when we pursue God we have access to His power which is greater than any other.

Ephesians 1: God chose Me!

While studying the Armor of God, I recently dug up some old notes I took a few years ago when I studied Ephesians with my home church.  In with these notes I have quite a bit regarding Ephesians 1 which I want to share with you over the next week or so.  I was greatly encouraged while re-reading these notes and pray that you are as well.

v. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Reading this verse it struck me that the blessings we receive are not just physical, as in material blessings of this world which we often think of in regards to blessings.  This verse is telling us we are not only blessed here on earth, but we are already blessed in the heavely realms - with spiritual blessings - which we have because of Christ and who we are in Christ.

v. 4-6 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

God choosing me has absolutely nothing to do with me.  He chose me not only before I was born, but also before the world was created.  He did it for His glory and He took pleasure in doing this for me.  I am NOT a burden to Him.

v. 7-9  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.

God does not make mistakes.  He chose me to redeem and show His grace to, even though He had full knowledge and insight of what that would mean and how I would react (how unfaithful I could be).  Once again it speaks of the pleasure He takes in revealing Himself to me and His plan for the future.

God takes pleasure in Me, just the way I am.  He takes pleasure in watching me grow in Him.

v. 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Remember God's final plan in everything - to bring everything under His Son, Jesus.  Through everything God wins, there is no question regarding this.

v. 11 - 14  In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.  And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are in God's possession - to the praise of his glory.

We have been chosen not only to be redeemed, but also to have an inheritance.  We were given a seal to mark us as God's - the Holy Spirit!  "A deposit guaranteeing our inheritance" until Jesus returns when we will come into our inheritance and we will bring God glory.

v 17 - 19  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength.

This is beautiful and this is the cry of my heart - to be given the Spirit of Wisdom so I can know the Lord better, so I can grow in my relationship with Him.  To shine a light on the eyes of my heart so I know the Hope He has for me, the inheritance He has set for me.  There is great power working in us.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead and placed Him higher than anything in this world or anything to come.
Stay tuned - more to come...

Worth Fighting For Blog

I came across this blog today and felt it was worth sharing with my friends.  This is a blog written by four teenagers who are taking a stand for unborn children in our world who do not have a voice of their own.  I found this site so inspiring, not only because of the stand they are taking but because they are the young people who will soon be the leaders of our world.  I thank God that we have young people who are willing to stand for His Truths and are not ashamed to do so.

Please take a moment to visit this blog - Worth Fighting For

In particular this post caught my eye - a poem written by a friend of one of the teenagers who writes for this blog and ministry.  Worth Fighting For: The Time for War

Spiritual Warfare

"There is something in human nature that just doesn't want to face the reality that we live in two worlds. We live in the physical, material world where we have jobs, read books, and go about our business. And we live in a spiritual world - and that is a world at war." ~ John Eldredge

I am a huge Ted Dekker fan. He is an amazing writer with a wide variety of books, however all of them have a common theme. God's love for us and the battle of good and evil in our world. I just happened to pick up a book yesterday that I purchased quite awhile ago but have not yet gotten to. It is called "Adam". As I read the opening pages I realized this book is about spiritual warfare. The quote above and one other I'll list below are at the beginning of the book and at the end they have an dialogue between Ted Dekker and John Eldredge about Spiritual Warfare that is very interesting. I started to read it and then realized it probably has some spoilers for the book, so I'll go back to it later.

But in the meantime a couple things struck me. It sounds like this book goes really deep into spiritual warfare, to the point of demon possession possibly. However, Ted wrote this book to make a point. He says many of his readers are in their mid twenties or younger and don't know much at all about Satan. Christians now days don't want to face the reality of a real personal evil that works in this world. Many believe evil is a just a general force in the world, not real and personal.

This is not to say that we can blame everything on Satan because the reality of it is, we are sin ridden creatures. We cause enough damage on our own. But to live your life in ignorance of the spiritual battle that rages around you is no better than believing everything you do bad is because the devil made you do it.

One thing to be very aware of is that the armor of God we've been talking about is what protects us as Believers. We can't fight these forces in our own power, we MUST have the protection of God. However, keep in mind that those in our lives who are not Believers, do not have this protection. They are wide open for the enemy to attack and many times use to try to trip us up.

The writers of the New Testatment many times warned the churches of not only the sin and evil in their own flesh, but of the spiritual evil that dwelt amoung them that they needed to be aware of and ready to fight. To them it was a given that the Believers of that time were in a spiritual battle. We've lost this awareness in our time for the most part.

There's a thief, and he comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. - John 10:10

Be on your alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that your brothers around the world are undergoing the same thing. - 1 Peter 5:8-9

One last quote from Ted Dekker regarding the book Adam:

"This whole novel boils down to these two truths. First, evil is real. Satan and the demons are aggressively arrayed against all Christians, all the children of God, all those who were formed in the image of God. And second, the only way to defeat all the forms of darkness in your own life is through the light of Jesus Christ." ~ Ted Dekker